put him on the defensive, which is what fellow republicans wanted the governor to do last night. the governor travels to virginia right away, to florida tomorrow, those key swing states, george, where hopefully, he can capitalize. a statistical dead heat with the president. >>> let's get to our insiders right now. matthew dowd. donna brazile, worked on the campaign for al gore. and nicolle wallace, who worked with the bush campaign. and on the mccain-palin ticket. mitt romney came in, spent a lot of time preparing. and it paid off. >> yeah, he actually made the right decision. there was some criticism that he wasn't doing enough events going in. but they made the calculation which was accurate. moments like this can wipe the slate clean of what's gone on in the last month. barack obama had a great month and a half. in one 90-minute period, this race went from a slight obama lead to a dead-even race. i think by the time you wake up on monday morning, this race will be tied. >> a lot of people wondering, donna, a lot of the president's supporters. you see it on twitter and in the b